Weiss Ratings gives ethereum higher rating than bitcoin

Foreign cryptocurrency investors were apparently very worried of which Weiss could issue negative ratings on digital currencies.

The agency said in a Discharge Wednesday of which “staff was up all night last night fending off denial of service attacks through Korea” along with cited Korean social media posts calling others to bring down the ratings agency’s website. The hackers then broke into the website, took information through This specific along with are distorting This specific on social media, the company said.

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“Earlier commentary on social media expressed considerable fear we were about to Discharge negative ratings on their preferred currencies,” Weiss Ratings founder Martin D. Weiss said in a statement. “So This specific may be an attempt to thwart our Discharge today.”

Some digital currency exchanges have reported degraded service due to similar cyberattacks, which attempt to paralyze a system having a flood of information.

Weiss said Friday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” of which the agency uses a computer type to rate cryptocurrencies based on four metrics: risk, reward, technology, along with fundamental aspects of adoption along with security.

“You can have a great technology index — all the pieces are in place for a very nice, strong currency — nevertheless unless This specific’s actually reality-tested inside marketplace, This specific may not succeed, along with of which’s what This specific last, fourth index tests,” he said.

Weiss holds a Ph.D. through Columbia University. He founded the company as Weiss Research in 1971 after an early stint at his father’s investment-newsletter publishing firm, according to the Times. The company went on to issue safety ratings on banks, saving associations along with insurers.

“Weiss’ cryptocurrency ratings are a great example of the ongoing institutionalization of the cryptocurrency industry along having a healthy addition,” Ari Paul, chief investment officer at cryptocurrency investment firm BlockTower Capital, said in an email.

“Their rating of Bitcoin suggests a misunderstanding of the core value proposition of cryptocurrency, however, as they seem to overvalue transaction capacity, along with undervalue protocol stability, security, along with decentralization.”

Bitcoin, the largest digital currency by market capitalization, traded 1 percent higher midday Wednesday near $10,955, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum, the second largest by market cap, traded about 3 percent higher near $1,019, according to CoinMarketCap.

The median bitcoin transaction fee was above $10 for the last several weeks before dropping to $5 on Tuesday, according to bitinfocharts. In contrast, ethereum had a median transaction fee of about 85 cents Tuesday.

Ethereum’s technology also differs through bitcoin in of which developers can build applications on the ethereum network.